Compare Listings

International investments in real estate in Spain

Share on |

According to the latest report by the consulting firm Savills, foreign capital accounted for three quarters of the volume of real estate transactions in Spain in the period from January to June 2016, i.e. 2,217 million euros. This is the highest rate in Europe, which was only surpassed by Poland.

However, foreign investment in real estate in Spain fell by about 4% compared to last year because of the drop in the share of the major countries of suppliers of investments and the simultaneous increase of the part of third countries, which previously were not noted for activity in this sector. Overall in the European market, the drop of international investments amounted to a third part.

Therefore, while the volume of international investments decreased in major markets (the UK, Germany and France), it significantly increased during a year by 81% in Ireland, by 179% in Poland and by 20% in Italy. In addition, also in the Nordic countries there has been registered an increase of 245% in Sweden and 63% in Finland.

"These markets are traditionally nonstrategic and are situated now in a preliminary phase of the investment cycle with an indicator of profitability above the EU average in most market segments and with growth potential, which offers more attractive interests to investors," said Eri Mitsostergiou, the director of the research department of Savills Europe.

The published study also notes that in terms of volume of very large transactions with real estate in Europe (over 100 million euros) in the first half of the year, the highest increases were registered in Austria (+ 233%), Ireland (+ 88%), Italy (+ 58%) and Sweden (+ 56%), while an average decline by 31 % was recorded in Western Europe.

In the case of traditionally strong markets in the continent, reducing of international investments occurred not due to lack of demand. According to experts of the company Savills, the reasons for the decline are rather the return to normality and the lack of offer of products with a low investment risk.

At the same time, during this year the markets of Northern Europe can register a double-digit increase in the volume of investments. Besides, other countries, among which are Spain and Italy, will record very similar data to 2015 or even slightly higher. In the case of Spain, experts from the company Savills expect that before the end of 2016 some 8,000 million euros of direct investments will be made in real estate in Spain.